A SUNSHINE industry is Medical Tourism. Thailand has already pushed a marketing drive for its medical tourism, especially with German tourists. But there is no country better suited for this than the Philippines. Even now the Filipinos in California have their dental work done in the Philippines because such work can be done better and cheaper here than in the US. Maybe some will not agree that it would be better but at least it would be just as competent. The plane fare is thrown in into the calculation of expenses and it is still cheaper. Dental work is easy to calculate but other medical operations and treatments are also attractively inexpensive, such as total knee replacement like that needed by former President Estrada. It has been done here hundreds of times by a good number of specialists like the Orthopedic Center in Davao of Dr. Espiridion Reyes and his associates.

Besides direct medical treatment, there is the potential of spas and hot springs. We are a country of volcanic islands and the numbers of hot baths are abundant, starting from the centuries recognized baths of Los Baños of Laguna de Bay. Thousands go there at all times of the year. Especially now that people have longer lives, problems with arthritis and sore muscles have multiplied. Our hot springs go from the mild and boiling waters of Laguna to the geothermal fumaroles of Tiwi in Albay and in Leyte, Negros, and Davao. These are not as attractive to tourists as the hot springs of Camiguin Island and Mambucal just a few kilometers from Bacolod with its sulfur medicinal pools. Bacolod too boasts of a magnetic field at km 32 and km. 34 that will pull a car up hill at about 20 km/hr speed for about a kilometer. Its new museum brings up the past of Bacolod, especially its sugar heritage vividly with pictures. It has a miniature doll collection from all over the world hard to find in any other place and worth seeing. Not only in Los Baños, Camiguin, or Bacolod but in a large number of possible sites, first class spas could be built to attract medical tourists. We have excellent doctors and the tender loving care of our competent nurses have won hearts all over the world.

Medical tourism is an untapped potential income earner and we are especially endowed with what it takes to make a first class mecca for medical treatment and health wellness spas. A collateral industry would be homes for the aged and infirm which can be provided with great success in many of our local areas. One of these would be in Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon, where the weather is as much as ten degrees cooler than at sea level which is only half an hour away ideal for swimming and water sports. We need a concerted marketing effort which can be a joint venture between government and private sector enterprises.

Source: Fr. Emeterio Barcelon, SJ
Voice from the South
Manila Bulletin